


Not Dead

by mynamedoesntmatter



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, i forgot i wrote this but here you go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 18:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14062797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynamedoesntmatter/pseuds/mynamedoesntmatter
Summary: David isn't very good at taking care of himself when left alone to his own devices.





	Not Dead

It felt like he’d barley fallen asleep when he felt a cool hand on his arm and a voice calling to him. He let a soft groan escape from between his teeth as he curled up tighter, he felt cold and everything hurt and he was so _tired_.

“David! Wake up!” The voice said louder while the hand shook him harder. That seemed to be enough for his eyes to slowly crack open, the sudden sunlight hit his eyes and he tried to blink it away. Squinting he flopped onto his back to look up at Gwen, his co-counselor, “Jesus, David. You look like shit,” She spoke as he stared watching her bend and twist with his wavy vision.

“G-Gwen?” He said, or rather tried say. I came out as more of a, “gwe?” He tried to sit up, but a bolt of pain shot through his head and pulsed angrily behind his eyes causing him to stop halfway and squeeze his eyes shut. He suddenly found himself laying back down, his eyes opening to Gwen’s hands retreating from his shoulders.

“Holy shit,” She started, her voice filled with concern and a hint of panic, “just stay down,” She looked around the cabin they shared frantically. Even fairly incoherent David saw the anxiety creeping up on his coworker and gently caught her wrist.

“Thermometer?” He prompted, taking stock in the way he felt cold even though he knew it was hot in the tiny cabin. Gwen’s eyes snapped back to him and he gave her a tired smile.

“Right thermometer. I’ll be right back!” Gwen made like she was going to go into their bathroom before pausing, “Do you want water?” She asked looking back towards the bed.

“Please?” David answered in a whisper, rolling over on his side to watch her move around the cabin.

It hardly felt like time passed, but Gwen was suddenly back, wrestling a thermometer into his mouth and setting a bottle of water into his hand.

“I should have noticed something was wrong earlier,” She talked aimlessly while keeping a close eye on the clock, “I woke up and didn’t even notice you still asleep until the coffee kicked in. Should have noticed the lack of your sunny good morning,” David tapped her arm and she looked down at him. He gave her a look that would have usually looked firm, but currently just looked flat; she still knew what it meant, “Alright! I’ll try not to beat myself up about it! It’s just, you look particularly pathetic,” He gave her a truly flat look and she laughed, glancing back at the clock before taking the thermometer out of his mouth.  Her smile fell into a firm line as she read the numbers and David struggled to lift his head, trying to see.

“Is it bad?” He asked, his voice a pitch lower than usual. He cleared his throat, before dropping his head back down, hugging the water bottle closer.

“101.3,” She told him frowning in concern, “Are you going to be okay here, by yourself?” David chuckled, although it came out as more of a wheeze.

“I’m an adult. I can take care of myself,” He reminded her and she rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair.

“Then act like it sometime!” She smiled, before frowning, “Well I guess I need to go make sure the camp doesn’t get burnt down. One of us has to do our job,” She joked stretching, “I’ll check on you next time I get a chance ok?”

“That’s fine,” David waved a hand towards her, eyes already drifting shut, “Go watch the kids.”

David drifted through fitful sleep, never quite feeling 100% awake or 100% asleep. He felt too hot at one point and kicked off his quilt only to feel much too cold the next, but much too tired to sit up and drag it back over him. He shivered resigning himself to freezing to death, when the blanket suddenly fell on top of him. His shivering quieted and he had half a mind to thank Gwen for checking on him.

“Jesus Christ, he looks worse than I thought he would,” the voice had his eyes blinking open, because that definitely wasn’t Gwen. His eyes focused and he caught the angry scowl of Max looking towards Nikki who had said something that David hadn’t quite caught.

“Max?” David forced his mouth to move, shifting to try and sit up.

“Woah!” Max pushed on David’s shoulder and despite being stronger than the 10-year-old, David dropped back down, “For fuck’s sake David,” Max pulled himself up until he was standing on the bed able to tower over the counselor, “Look at yourself,” he tsked, “You look like actual shit!” David winced at the loud tone and Max looked shocked for a moment, taking a step back. He would have fallen off the bed if David hadn’t been coherent enough to grab the front of his hoodie and pull him back on the bed.

“Be careful,” David told him automatically, but his usual urge to lecture about safety was gone and it left the room in awkward silence. Max was looking at him with a guarded look that David didn’t have the energy to try and read, “Max, Nikki, Neil, thanks for the visit, but could you please just let me sleep,” David pleaded, still trying to be polite. Max’s hand darted out of his hoodie pocket and rested for a moment on David’s forehead before he pulled away again in shock.

“Dude David you’re _burning alive_ ,” Max looked at him in shock, “No wonder you look like death,” David, slightly delirious from fever, felt tears prick at his eyes and he tried to will them away.

“That’s because I feel really fucking bad,” David admitted, voice wobbling, but staying strong. He buried his face into his quilt, he could have sworn Max almost looked worried for a second there. He smiled holding back a laugh at the thought.

“Max,” he heard Nikki call in the softest voice he’d ever heard her use and the next thing he knew Max was forcing the thermometer into his mouth. David blinked in confusion.

“Open your mouth or die a painful death,” Max instructed, both him and Neil turning to watch the clock. Nikki had disappeared. Three minutes must have passed because before David knew it the glass tube was yanked from his mouth. He almost fell back asleep, but the number reading woke him back up.

“104.5… is that bad?” Max asked, to whom David wasn’t sure, but if it was possible his face paled more. Neil must look as panicked as he felt because he saw Max tense.

“I’ll go get Gwen!” Neil called running out of the room. Max slowly turned to look at the sick man.

“David?” His voice sounded a lot smaller than it ever had and David tried to keep from panicking, but truthfully, he felt it gripping his heart. He rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

“F-fuck,” he responded, his breathing getting shorter. Part of his brain wondered if this is how Gwen felt during panic attacks; he wasn’t a huge fan.

“Stop swearing, it’s really out of character,” Max demanded, although he wasn’t sounding very firm. David looked over at him, eyes dull and dazed and Max put his hand on David’s shoulder, “Come on, stay awake,” Before he could try and come up with energy to tell Max he was going to be okay the door slammed open. Gwen rushed over, scooping Max off the bed and onto the floor, before cupping David’s face with her hands.

“Shit, shit, shit,” She muttered as her hands fluttered around, “I’m so sorry, I meant to check in on you after breakfast, but the kids were being crazy and then lunch came faster than I knew it and-” Gwen kept rambling, apologies rolling off her tongue. Out of the corner of David’s eye he saw Max looking up at them with wide scared eyes and Nikki and Neil peering in from the side of the door frame in concern. He made a few attempts to capture Gwen’s hand before he was able too.

“Gwen, it’s okay, but now isn’t the time,” David murmured, still trying desperately to keep awake, “Help me up, let’s go,” He prompted. He started to push himself up and she helped sit him up against the wall where they paused so he could rest for a moment and she coaxed him into drinking a little of the water he’d long forgotten about.

“Ok, can you stand?” She asked after a moment, he pressed his lips into a line, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to try.

“Help me up?” He asked, with a pleading edge to his voice. Without a word, Gwen looped an arm around his waist and pulled one of his arms over her shoulder.

“Alright here we go,” She tugged him up and he struggled to get his aching legs to push himself up. Once stood at his full height his vision spun fiercely and he felt his knees threaten to buckle. Before he could warn Gwen, his vision darkened and he felt his legs give out.

A second later his eyes opened and he recognized the texture of the rough wood floor under his palm.

“Oh thank God,” He heard Gwen’s voice, “He’s awake see? He’s going to be fine,” He focused in on her face as she turned towards someone else and he struggled to turn his head against the will of his aching body, he saw Max’s fluffy black hair first, his face hidden in his arms. Gwen set a hand on Max’s back and David looked behind them to see Nikki and Neil looking on in horror.

“H-hey, I’m f-fine,” David managed to say, feeling guilty for probably emotionally traumatizing his campers.

“No you aren’t you stupid fuck!” Max yelled, head coming up to glare at him. Tear streaks were painted on his cheeks. David frowned, but before he could do anything to try and cheer Max up they heard sirens, and the crunch of tires on gravel as an ambulance parked outside.

David was whisked away, content to finally, _finally_ fall into a blissful sleep as the drugs he’d been given seeped through his system.

Waking up to the steady beat of a heart monitor, is what the clichés had set him up to believe, so when he instead woke up to a, “Space Kid if you don’t get down from there this instant so help me!” he was suddenly fairly alert.

His eyes opened to a normal camp situation in a definitely not normal environment. Gwen was pulling Space Kid down from a high perch near the screen monitors. Nurf was quietly threatening Harrison in the corner as Nerris told Nikki a story of adventure while Preston tried to act it out. Ered was texting and Neil was inspecting the label on the IV stand. In fact, the only missing camper in the room was Max.

“Oh hey you’re awake,” Gwen turned to him with a slight smile, “Thank God I wasn’t sure I could keep up this single counselor thing for much longer,” David smiled back automatically.

“What-” he was cut off by a pretty wicked cough for a moment, “What are you all doing here?”

“What you thought we’d just leave you here alone? That’d be pretty low,” Gwen joked and David’s grin lit up the room.

“That’s so nice of you all to visit me!” David looked around the whole room at all the mismatched campers and felt happy tears well up in his eyes, he wiped them away with a laugh.

“David! We have a present for you!” Nikki’s voice brought his attention down towards where she was leaning towards him from the end of the bed, “Ready?” She asked and without waiting for an answer Preston presented him with a sloppily made paper card.

The card had ‘Get well Soon’ written on the front in crayon with a smiley face and on the inside, it was signed by all the campers, including the one absent from the room. There was a bit of mud and a leaf smeared on the inside and when Nikki saw him looking at it she grinned at him.

“Dirt makes me feel better,” She offered as an explanation.

“Thank you all so much for this gift! I will treasure it dearly,” He told them all, smiling around the room before focusing on Gwen. She noticed his stare and she stepped closer.

“We can check you out now that you’re awake. Your temperature is back down so you aren’t going to cook your brain anymore, but you’re still sick so no camp activities yet,” She gave him an extra sharp look at that last part and he gave her a partial frown of understanding.

“Ok, I’ll fold. Let’s head back now, yeah?” He suggested and then turned to Nikki “The dirt makes me feel better too!”

The bus pulled back into Camp Campbell with a screech of the brakes and all the kids rushed off hurrying to play in the few hours before the sun set. David and Gwen got off last, taking things slow.

“Hey I’m going to go wrestle the kids into the Mess Hall for some dinner. Can you make it back to our cabin by yourself?” Gwen asked, giving him a concerned smile. David rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m not going to pass out again, if that’s what you mean,” Gwen rolled her eyes and gave him a light shove towards the cabin.

“If I come in there and you’re not laying down, you’re going to face my wrath,” She joked and he smiled back, giving her a little wave as he headed towards the cabin.

He opened the door and started heading automatically towards his bed, before noticing the figure perched on the edge kicking his feet back and forth.

“Hi Max, can I help you with something?” David asked worried about the quiet approach the kid was using to get his attention.

“I fucking hate you,” David opened his mouth to say something, but Max stared pointedly down at his shoes and continued before he could, “But I don’t want you dead.”

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me!” David grinned at him and Max glared up at him.

“This means nothing,” He reminded the counselor as he slid off the bed and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Of course,” David agreed, sitting down in the now vacated spot on his bed.

“I mean it!” Max threatened, “Nothing at all!” David just grinned back, pulling off his shoes.

“Got it!” Max just stared at him for a moment, before turning around and heading out the door.

“Get some rest you fucking idiot,” He called from just outside the door and David decided to do just that.

**Author's Note:**

> I love finding things I wrote and forgot about hidden in the depths of my fanfiction folder.


End file.
